Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Hutchinson throws in with voodoo highway economics

Gov. Asa Hutchinson apparently said explicitly today that he favored revenue neutrality in any plan to pay for highway construction. That is, any increases in taxes for highways must be offset by spending cuts somewhere else.

Where?

Who pays and how?

And if it's so expendable, why not put the cuts on the table now. Schools? Prisons? Medical services for poor people?

Maybe they could cut $600 million by dropping the plan to pave downtown Little Rock with a 10-lane freeway.

Presuming Democrats hang on to 25 percent of the House, they could put a stop to this nonsense, at least when it comes to non-education cuts, if they would. Why not?

More by Max Brantley

Democratic Rep. MIchael John Gray has issued a statement on the report that former Democratic legislator Hank Wilkins, soon to resign as Jefferson County judge, had told FBI he'd taken bribes from a lobbyist now under indictment. Wilkins has not been charged. It's regrettably a defense of some other indefensible practices.

The Monday open line, plus a video roundup of news and comment.

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The group is not affiliated with the official "Reflections of Progress" commemoration of the 60th anniversary. However, at least two of the Little Rock Nine may be joining the group for an event at 2:30 p.m. at the state Capitol in the Old Supreme Court Chamber.

The El Dorado School District HAS gone to federal court in response to the state Board of Education's approval, over El Dorado's objection, of the transfer of a white student from El Dorado to the majority white Parkers Chapel School District.

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A federal prosecutor in Missouri said Friday that a former legislator, Henry Wilkins IV of Pine Bluff, had said he'd received $100,000 in bribes as a state legislator from indicted former lobbyist Rusty Cranford. He was not alone on an illicit dole.

On Wednesday, both chambers of the Arkansas legislature approved identical versions of a bill to regulate pharmacy benefit managers, the powerful health care companies at the center of a dispute over cuts in reimbursements paid to pharmacists.

A state senator's business relationship with a company she helped receive state money.

Democratic Rep. MIchael John Gray has issued a statement on the report that former Democratic legislator Hank Wilkins, soon to resign as Jefferson County judge, had told FBI he'd taken bribes from a lobbyist now under indictment. Wilkins has not been charged. It's regrettably a defense of some other indefensible practices.